Ashes
by ShadowWolf203027
Summary: It was like going to sleep. No pain. No realization of slumber. But we would never wake up again. We were dead. Except...I did wake up.
1. Chapter 1

**1 The End - Saphira**

I do not hurt. I do not fear. I simply...

Fall.

_We _fall.

_Together_. Just as it should be.

I know there is a gaping hole in my chest, and something... important is no longer there. But I do not care. I enjoy the air rushing past me and through me. I feel Eragon in my mind, our iron clad walls have long since given way to the overbearing pressure from... who?

_Looks like this is it. _He sputters and hacks warmth onto my neck. I share his surprise – how are we even conscious?

_I expected something more poetic from the last free rider. _I joke.

We laugh.

And choke on blood.

But we still smile.

_I've never been a poet, you know that Saphira. _I feel his smile.

_Yes I know, my little one. _I try to sigh – but I cant draw breath. _It seems that we will finally have peace._

He nods, and tries to breathe in, but the air just passes out through the pinholes in his chest. More warmth on my neck. _Why did you call me that?_

_I've always called you that. _ I didn't understand, was he closer to death than we were to the ground?

_No, why did you call me yours?_

_Because you are._

_Oh. _I feel another smile in his thoughts. _Then you are mine as well._

I grin slowly. _Just a few more seconds. _I embrace him and retreat deeply into myself. _I love you._

_I love you too, Saphira. _

It was like going to sleep. No pain. No realization of slumber. Only we would never wake up again.

We were dead.

Except...

...I woke up.

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**A side project to help me kill writers block. R/R tell me what you think. This was just a teaser, but could turn into a very long story if people show interest.**


	2. Chapter 2

**2 After - Eragon**

Black ash falls around me, raining from too dark clouds. The wind stirs, and mini ash-cyclones dance across me. _How am I... _No. I am dead. I know I am dead.

No one could live through that fall – let alone the fifty-odd holes in my chest. And I'm so cold.

_...but how..._

A dark, out of focus form leans over me, and I hear a voice. "Today is not your day. But soon, Eragon. Soon you will rest." I feel the cold electricity of magic on my skin. "Fate waits on no man, she is always in motion, always balancing the forces." I hear a sharp crack and a pressure in my chest dissolves. "And for whatever reason, you are her chosen tool." I feel air being forced into my lungs and I take my first breath in... how long? I feel magic tighten my heart and then release... tighten... release. The half-dry blood in my veins shutters and cracks – but moves nonetheless. A sigh. "Harden your heart Shadeslayer. The coming months will be the darkest you have ever experienced." I feel a fresh moisture sweep across my eyes and the world begins to focus.

But the figure remains obscure.

I blink and it is gone.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, then open them and glance to the side. White.

Snow surrounds me, not ash, and that would explain why I'm cold. I take another deep breath and roll onto me feet. I look around, confused.

Bare trees.

Something isn't right.

I stand in a dense forest – far removed from the rolling hills around Uru'baen. It is winter, not the wet early-spring I remember. I look at the sky, trying to find the location of the sun, but the clouds are to thick.

And it is _so _cold.

I turn in a circle.

Pick a direction.

And start walking.

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**The feedback was awesome. And it would seem people want me to continue this. But be warned, chapters will be short, its part of the style of this story. Anyway thanks for the reviews - you know who you are.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**3 Forgotten – Saphira**

Ethereal sapphire-purple sparks ignite chaotic patterns in the darkness, like light scattering off broken glass, or through choppy water. A coolness flows... _through_ me, some fragment of emotion that I cant quite grasp. It is so soothing. Peaceful.

I snuggle closer to it.

A voice. High pitched and smooth. Perfect.

Angelic.

_Wake. _It commands with such authority I cannot even fathom disobeying.

My eyes snap open and I try to draw breath, but I cant. I feel a presence near, someone I can only describe as... soft.

I stir and roll my shoulders only to hit something. I reach out tentatively with my limbs only to find that I am encased in a tomb of some kind. Confusion grips me...

Where am I?

I wait on an answer I know will not come.

...

How many hours have passed in this colorful twilight-tomb? A day? A week? A year?

Time has become something as arbitrary as this ever-darkness that surrounds me. It has ceased to matter. I feel something slipping away. Some not-wholly-physical object continuously falling further out of my reach. And I mourn its loss.

Though I do not even know what it is.

The Soft-Presence leaves and returns in irregular intervals – thirty-seven times so far. I cannot touch their mind, nor can I touch anyone else's. Let alone... whose?

Someone important.

Someone... I have forgotten.


	4. Chapter 4

**4 Cold – Eragon **

I sit as close to the fire as possible, trying desperately to rub feeling back into my feet. The blisters on my hands burn and sting as I do, but the numbness in my toes frightens me. The pain is nothing next to the fear.

I've seen frost bite and what destruction it can cause to peoples limbs.

At first I merely ignored it. Magic could solve the problem quickly if it became uncomfortable. I allowed it to progress until that point, only to discover that – for whatever reason – I can no longer reach the vast store of energy that once lay behind that dam in my mind.

As far as I can tell the dam doesn't even exist anymore.

There is just... nothing.

The panic that seized me is like nothing I've ever felt, and in my rush to get a fire started I lost my bearings. Tracks lead from here to there and back, sometimes covering a few hundred yards before twisting back on itself. Everywhere I fetched what dry wood I could find. And now I have no clue what direction I came from. My stamina is not what it use to be either. I'm more than exhausted.

And add on top of that the raw skin on my hands from literally rubbing some sticks together to get a fire.

I'm miserable and scared, and I miss Saphira so much I doubt there are even words to describe it.

But something pushes me forth.

Not now, obviously.

But I feel the... _need_ to continue on.

As if all is not lost.

I have hope, yet.


	5. Chapter 5

**5 – Saphira**

There is someone I miss dearly, but I do not know who they are. It is such a strange sensation. I know them. I _know _them. But at the same time...

...I do not

This paradox annoys me almost as much as the tomb – almost.

The Soft-Presence comes and goes – sometimes touching my tomb, sometimes just watching it. Why? What am I to this... grand, entity? A small insignificant insect? A pet to keep tame and caged?

_Salvation, child. Salvation. _The angelic voice sings.

_What do you mean? _ I ask.

She laughs. _You will find out soon enough. _She withdraws from my mind, and I am left to ponder the darkness.

...

...

Under slumber's shroud, I dream of black wings that eclipse the sky, and a beast as corporeal as nothing. Untouchable and Exultant. A dark king on the beasts back, to be hailed with fear and terror. His rule unquestionable, absolute. The winged form and the _thing _on its back are Gods.

The dream twists, folds and snaps back on itself.

A man struggling forward in a blizzard. The snow is so deep I can only see his upper half. He holds up an arm to shield his face, and the tattered sleeve flails in the harsh wind. Despite the cloth, I see his face. And I... something prods at my mind. Almost-recognition? Maybe?

A whirl of snow and everything goes gray.

Then black.

I am awake. I cannot feel the Soft-Presence but...

...someone is near my tomb.


End file.
